This invention pertains to equipment for the continuous chopping of municipal refuse and other solid wastes and more particularly for such equipment that includes cooperating apron conveyors for compacting and conveying the refuse, a chopping section for cutting up the refuse received from the two conveyors, cooperating means for conveying the chopped refuse to a disposal site, and means for collecting and treating the waste water from the refuse.
Large urban areas are, as well known, experiencing a crisis as regards the disposal of municipal refuse and special wastes in landfill sites, especially since the amount to be handled is continuously increasing, while it is becoming ever more difficult to find suitable sites for controlled tipping. Of fundamental importance in this regard is the fact that existing sites are reaching saturation. At the present time transport to landfill sites involves the movement of the total volume of refuse collected, generally in plastic bags and/or in bulk, mechanical compaction (using bulldozers, etc.) being performed only after tipping.
No specific studies appear to have been made on machinery or systems for reducing the volume of municipal refuse at its origin by means of mechanical equipment. All that has been done in this field has been to concentrate on finding solutions to the problem of treatment and separation of the various components of the refuse with a view to possible subsequent use, for instance, for energy production, recycling, salvaging, composting, disposal, etc.
The system described below thus concerns a mechanical solution based on an innovatory technique for compressing and chopping municipal refuse and solid wastes in general which permits a ten to fifteen fold reduction in initial volume, thus optimizing the use of available landfill sites, while ensuring the following advantages:
greater specific volume transported by the collection units (marked reduction in the number of trips made by waste-collection vehicles)
less space occupied on the landfill sites (thus assuring better performance and longer life)
better type of refuse tipped, since compression and chopping favour drying of the organic component of the refuse
easier separation of the various components of the refuse after chopping for eventual transport to treatment and/or salvaging plants
chopping of the refuse to optimized dimensions permits compaction on the landfill sites with good circulation of air and egress of methane and other possible gases from the tipped wastes
the size of the chopped refuse of desired dimensions, ranging from a few millimeters up to the desired dimensions can be ensured by simple regulation of the system
the type of system permits installation of the chopper equipment both in large fixed plants located in the area of the main users (landfill sites) and/or in collection centres (hospitals, barracks, schools, canteens, camping grounds, holiday villages, ships, harbours, etc.) and in small truck-mounted mobile plants for local chopping of collected refuse.